by Sam Sisavath
“Jeremy,” Claire said, focusing on the young man, “can you get them near the conference building?”
“What?” Jeremy said. “Why?”
“Can you do it?”
“Yes, of course. Just getting inside the compound is the real challenge. Once you’re inside, you can pretty much go anywhere, because you’re supposed to be there. Getting into the conference building itself is another matter. There are guards outside.” He looked back at Keo. “What’s going on? What are you asking me to do?”
“Buck is the key,” Claire said.
Jeremy turned back to her. “The key to what?”
“To stopping the war that’s coming, Jeremy.”
“I don’t understand…”
Keo nodded at Rita, and she followed him into the hallway without a word as Claire began talking to Jeremy.
“We have to stop this,” Claire was saying, her voice dropping to almost a conspiratorial whisper. “You want to save lives, don’t you? If we can do that. Together. We can stop this and save a lot of people, Jeremy. This is our chance…”
Keo and Rita moved farther into the corridor, until they could barely hear what Claire was saying to Jeremy in the reception area.
“You think she can convince him?” Rita whispered.
“If she can’t, there’s no chance we’re going to,” Keo whispered back.
“What’s she saying?”
“I don’t know.”
“I hope it’s good, whatever it is.”
“Me too.”
They looked over at the two young people in the connecting room. Claire was doing most of the talking, cupping Jeremy’s face in her hands and looking deep into his eyes as she talked.
“So we’re definitely doing this,” Rita whispered to him. “We’re going to Mercer this fucker?”
Keo looked over at her and raised both eyebrows. “‘Mercer this fucker?’”
“You know what I mean.”
“When did Mercer’s name become a verb?”
“Ever since you blew his brains out.”
“Jesus.”
“I bet that’s what he was saying when the bullet was going through his brains.”
Keo chuckled softly. “Damn, girl.”
Rita grinned back before putting on her serious face. “So, we’re really going to do this?”
Keo nodded. “Before, we didn’t know where he would be—or if the man was even still in the city. He’s been like a ghost since Black Tide started flying reconnaissance over Fenton. It’s a golden opportunity, and it’d be a shame to pass it up.”
“And she gave you the okay? Lara. She said we could change the mission and take Buck out if we had the chance?”
“Yeah, she did,” Keo lied.
Fifteen
“You’re going to kill him. I didn’t get that wrong, did I?”
“Yes, and no.”
“Will that stop it? What he’s doing out there?”
“It stopped Mercer’s war. It can stop Buck’s, too.”
“And Lara’s okay with this?”
“Yes,” Keo lied for the second time that night.
“You guys have actually discussed this?” Claire asked.
Keo nodded. “We did. Gaby was there, too.”
“I don’t have to ask what Gaby said,” the teenager said with a slight smile. “I know her too well.”
“She’s the one who brought it up, actually.”
“I don’t have any trouble believing that, either.”
Claire glanced out the hallway at Jeremy and Rita in the reception area as Jeremy made sure Rita’s clothing fit her. It mostly did, though the pant legs were a bit too long. That wasn’t going to work, so Rita was rolling them up. In the semidarkness, it wouldn’t be noticeable unless someone decided to take a very close look. She had already put on a black assault vest—a circled M was prominently displayed on one of the pouches—over her black long-sleeved sweater. Keo was wearing an identical vest, but his clothes had fit right away.
The teenager looked back over at him. “Lara, on the other hand, I wouldn’t think she would approve something like this.”
“She did,” Keo said. “We had a very long talk about it. But in the end, she came around.”
“If you say so,” Claire said, even if Keo didn’t think she completely bought it. Maybe she wanted to believe it.
“We all good?” Keo asked Rita.
The sniper looked over and nodded. “A bit long in the legs, but it’ll do.”
“What about you?” he asked Jeremy.
The Bucky nodded, too. “As long as no one asks too many questions, we should be okay.”
“Will they? Ask too many questions?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out when we find out.”
Not exactly brimming with confidence there, Jeremy ol’ pal, Keo thought, but he smiled and said instead, “Let’s get going, then.” He turned to Claire. “Rita gave you her radio?”
“It’s in the back room,” the teenager said.
“Rudolph and Gholston are waiting to hear from us. Let them know what’s happening and what the new plan is.”
“Will do.” She looked over at Jeremy and Rita, then back at Keo. “Good luck.”
“You too.”
“You need it more.”
“I can’t disagree with that.”
He walked into the reception room and nodded at Rita, who understood and followed him outside the building.
As soon as they stepped in the cold, chilly night, Keo shivered and quickly pulled on his gloves to tighten them. Rita did the same next to him, her Mk 14 rifle slung over her shoulder. The circled M, in white permanent marker, seemed to almost glow on her chest. It was the same with his.
Soft voices from behind them as Jeremy and Claire said their good-byes. Their temporary good-byes, if everything went according to plan.
Captain Optimism, Keo thought, and chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” Rita asked.
Her voice was low to keep from being overheard, not that Keo thought there was anyone still awake in any of the darkened buildings around them to eavesdrop. Still, you could never be too careful, especially when you were behind enemy lines and surrounded by a few hundred men with guns.
Damn. How did this happen?
Oh, right. You volunteered.
“Nothing,” Keo said.
“No, no, what’s so funny? Share with the rest of the class.”
“I was just thinking about how quickly things changed.”
“The mission?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s that Danny liked to say? No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Or something along those lines.”
“Sounds about right,” Keo said, and took out the Texas Rangers ball cap and slipped it on. He adjusted the brim before turning to Rita. “How do I look?”
“I can barely make out your scar. Just make sure to stand away from the light.”
“I was never one to hog the spotlight, anyway.”
“Funny.”
Keo grinned. The cap was to keep him anonymous, now that he knew some of the Buckies had a good idea of what he looked like. Calvin the sniper had proved that when he intentionally killed Chang instead of taking Keo out when he had the chance back in the woods this morning. But Jeremy had also confirmed that he didn’t know who Keo was, which meant Buck was only telling certain individuals.
Rita glanced back at the clinic behind them. “They’re taking their time.”
“Leave the lovebirds alone.”
“Do they qualify as lovebirds when only one of the birds is in love?”
“I guess it depends on which one of the birds you asked.”
As if on cue, the door opened and Jeremy came outside, with Claire lingering in the doorway behind them. She nodded at Keo and Rita, then exchanged a smile with Jeremy.
“Good luck,” the teenager said.
Keo nodded back at her before turning to Jeremy. “It’s your plan. Take the lead.”
Jeremy pursed his lips and seemed to gather himself before stepping off the sidewalk and onto the street. Keo and Rita followed behind him, even as Keo’s eyes roamed the empty roads and the shadowed buildings around them.
Behind enemy lines and looking for more trouble. What more could a guy with a gun ask for?
He smiled to himself and thought of Lara, and how much dancing he was going to have to do when he tried to explain this to her.
Assuming, of course, that he survived tonight…
Jeremy led them out of the city and toward the fields before turning right and continuing down a two-lane asphalt road that had been there long before most—if not all—of the people calling Fenton home showed up. They took their time and walked at an unhurried pace. It was a façade to convince anyone who crossed their path that they belonged and weren’t afraid of being seen. Just in case, though, Keo made sure his slung MP5SD was within easy reach. When he sneaked a look at Rita walking next to him, he saw that she was doing the same with her rifle.
Just in case…
Fortunately, neither one of them had to go for their weapons. The three two-man patrols that they met on the road since leaving Claire behind only bothered to exchange nods with them and a few brief Heys and How’s it goings with Jeremy. If any of the Buckies were suspicious of Keo and Rita, it didn’t stop them from continuing on their way.
So far, so good.
The compound on the west side of Fenton came into view in all its well-lit glory once they circled around the cornfields and started up another two-lane road toward its front gate. Even before he saw the heavily guarded perimeter, Keo had heard the buzz of electricity that ebbed and flowed from the long wall of hurricane fencing that separated Buck’s soldiers from the civilians. The area was as obvious as Gaby had told them, with no attempts to camouflage it or make it stand out less from the rest of Fenton.
They passed two more patrols, both on horseback, when they were walking up a road flanked by walls of cornstalks to their left and acres of wheat to their right. As with the foot patrolmen, the mounted Buckies stopped momentarily to exchange a quick word with Jeremy but ignored Keo and Rita.
“Does everyone know you?” Rita asked after the second two-man patrol was well out of earshot.
“I was here before Buck showed up,” Jeremy said. “I was one of the people overseeing the town back when it was just T31 and Copenhagen was in charge.”
“I heard that name before,” Keo said. “Copenhagen. What happened to him?”
Jeremy shook his head. “No one knows. One day he just…disappeared. No one knows what happened. Where he went. Or if he went anywhere at all.”
“What does that mean? ‘If he went anywhere at all?’”
“We don’t talk about it. Buck’s in charge now. That’s all there is to it.”
“When did this happen? When did Copenhagen disappear?”
“Honestly, I can’t be sure. One day he was just gone.”
“When did you first notice?”
“About seven months ago.”
“But he could have been gone long before then?”
“Anything’s possible. He and I don’t exactly mix in the same company, you know?”
Keo nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. He did, though, recall the first (and only) time he’d talked to Buck. That was over the radio, and Copenhagen’s name had come up:
“He didn’t like that,” Buck had said. “Copenhagen, I mean. He got kind of annoyed, actually. Here’s this guy he’s never met, threatening his life.”
“You didn’t tell him about me?” Keo had asked.
“I did, actually.”
“What did he say?”
“He was like me—he didn’t know whether to hunt you down or offer you a position on his staff.”
The conversation had been from a few weeks back, long after Jeremy noticed that Copenhagen was no longer seen in Fenton. Was it possible Jeremy had gotten the timetable wrong? Or was it more likely that Buck was lying out of his ass when he told Keo about Copenhagen’s nonexistent reaction?
And there was that conversation with Greengrass in Cordine City:
“Buck’s been working hard to put it all together. Years of work, getting it ready,” Greengrass had said.
“Buck and Copenhagen?” Keo had asked.
“Mostly Buck. He’s always been the real brains of the operation.”
Greengrass hadn’t come right out and said Copenhagen was gone, that Buck was the lone man at the top now. But then, there was no reason for Greengrass to come clean and tell Keo everything. They hadn’t exactly been buddies at the time.
Did it really matter who was running things in Fenton now? No, not really. As far as Keo could tell, Buck was the top dog, the alpha running the show. If Copenhagen was even still alive, he was doing a hell of a good job hiding in the background.
Keo pushed all those questions aside (Copenhagen was the last person on his mind right now) as they approached the gate into the compound.
It was as heavily guarded up close as it had looked from above in the aerial photos. A half-dozen men stood guard while a dozen more walked the perimeter to the left and right of it. More in the background that he couldn’t see, but could come running at any second. Keo could hear the engines of multiple vehicles nearby, occasionally moving along the length of the fence, and he glimpsed a white truck parked under one of the lights.
And then there were the two Buckies standing behind a machine gun nest about ten meters from the entrance, surrounded in a half circle by sandbags. When he glanced right, he saw another MG setup; a quick look left revealed yet another one. Three in all, ready to unload on anyone who tried to enter the gate without permission.
There were plenty of lights to illuminate the final thirty meters of the road on this side of the compound, and it took Keo a while for his eyes to adjust to the brightness before he could make out the buildings on the other side of the fencing. There were a lot of them, most one story tall with a few taller structures in the background. They were spread out from end to end, and even more that he couldn’t see from the road. Even though he had seen plenty of photos of the place, the combination of darkness and bright lights blasting in his face made it difficult to see exactly how big the place was from ground level.
“It’s huge,” Gaby had told him. “I would have gotten lost and would probably still be trying to find my way out if I hadn’t found a guide.”
Her “guide” hadn’t assisted willingly, but Gaby could be pretty convincing when she needed to be.
The gate was starting to open before they were within fifteen meters of it. It was Jeremy. The guards recognized him right away, even if a few of them were staring at Keo and Rita as they neared.
One of the guards got up and walked directly to Jeremy.
“There’ll be a shift change at the front gates in two more hours,” Jeremy had told them earlier. “The one in charge is Tanner. He’s young and I know him, and he’ll be easier to convince that you guys are new recruits that he hasn’t seen before.”
Keo guessed the Bucky walking over and nodding at Jeremy now was the Tanner guy.
“Back already?” the man said to Jeremy.
“It’s freezing out here,” Jeremy said.
“It’s not that cold.”
“You try patrolling.”
“Pass!”
The closest machine gun station was to Keo’s right when he followed Jeremy into the compound, but the men behind the old model M60 were too busy chatting with another guard to notice them. The gate began to roll close behind them as soon as they stepped past it, with Rita behind Jeremy and Keo bringing up the rear.
Keo made sure to avoid the couple of curious looks directed at him, even if they were fleeting. Most of Buck’s men were too busy ogling Rita. She smirked back at them—just like someone who wasn’t afraid of being stared at but didn’t apprec
iate it, either, would react.
“Who’re they?” the one named Tanner was asking Jeremy.
“Bonney and Cruz,” Jeremy said. “I went out with them before the shift change to show them their patrol sector.”
“They new?”
“New recruits, yeah. They’re being added to the regular rotation tomorrow night.”
“Better them than me.” Tanner turned to Rita and smiled. “Hey, how’s it going?”
“Take a picture,” Rita said.
The Bucky chuckled, before miming “snapping” a picture with an invisible camera.
“Jackass,” Rita said under her breath as she followed Jeremy farther into the compound.
“Cruz is fucking hot,” Tanner said to Keo as he walked past the man.
“She’s single,” Keo said.
“Oh yeah?”
“Uh huh.”
“Good to know, good to know,” the man said from somewhere behind Keo.
And then they were inside, and no one had fired a single shot.
Jesus, I think I might have peed my pants a little…
There were no official roads for them to walk along, just paths that had been carved into the dirt ground by vehicles and a few thousand footsteps that had come before them. The trail they were on now snaked around buildings, including two big ones that Keo recognized as barracks. Both were dark and silent, and likely filled with sleeping Buckies.
All I’d need is one grenade to fix that…
They walked past more patrols, but no one gave them more than a cursory nod before moving on.
That’s right, boys. We belong here, just like you. So just keep on, keeping on.
There were lights outside most of the newish-looking structures around them and darkness inside. It was, after all, well past midnight. Not quite the Hour of the Wolf, but it would have to do. Fenton didn’t look at all like a place gearing up for a war that could decimate them. There was nothing to indicate to Keo that these people were worried about the hell Black Tide could marshal against them. Certainly nothing visible to the naked eye, and there should have been evidence of it, even at night.
Either they don’t know what’s coming, or they know and they don’t care.